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English National Opera singers to vote on strike action English National Opera singers to vote on strike action
(about 4 hours later)
Choristers at the English National Opera are to be balloted for industrial action after being threatened with redundancies and what their union called an unsustainable pay cut. Members of English National Opera’s 44-strong chorus are to be balloted for industrial action after being threatened with four redundancies and a pay cut of at least 25%.
Equity said ENO management wanted to renegotiate contracts which would result in the the 44-member chorus getting a 25% pay cut. With the removal of other add-ons, such as overtime and Sunday working, it could be up to 39%, the union organiser, Hilary Hadley, said. The union Equity said ENO management wanted to renegotiate contracts, which would threaten more than its members’ pay and job security. Hilary Hadley, the union’s head of live performance, said the deal amounted to “cultural vandalism” which threatened the opera company’s entire artistic future.
The proposals amounted to “cultural vandalism” that threatened the opera company’s artistic future, she said. “We do feel the proposals put forward to us, although probably well meant, actually are going to destroy English National Opera once and for all,” she said.
The union said it feared bigger pay cuts in future if the current proposals went ahead. As well as the pay cut, ENO wants to make four choristers redundant. The announcement of the ballot was made in appropriately dramatic fashion with the chorus singing Hail Poetry from The Pirates of Penzance at a press conference in central London.
The vote in the coming weeks will be over whether to hold strikes and/or other forms of industrial action, with Equity saying it was ruling nothing out. Productions could be halted by any action. Stephen Spence, Equity’s assistant general secretary, said the ballot was about trying “to retain the artistic integrity of English National Opera … Our concern is that a full-time ensemble on part-time pay is unsustainable.”
The choristers sang a Pirates of Penzance song at a news conference in London announcing the vote. ENO has said it is has no choice but to make savings after Arts Council England (ACE) cut its subsidy by £5m a year.
Public funding of the ENO was cut by £5m last year and it has argued that it must cut its cloth accordingly. But the union argued the chorus was one of ENO’s great strengths. The “complex” deal on the table would result in four job losses and a 25% pay cut which, with the removal of add-ons such as overtime and Sunday working, could amount to 39%.
The strike ballot is the latest problem in what have been tumultuous times for the opera company. In the last year it has lost a chairman, an executive director and an artistic director and it is expected to announce in April a significantly truncated season as it tries to cut costs and increase revenues.
It also remains in special funding measures, having been removed from ACE’s national portfolio last year because of concerns over its governance.
Members of the chorus are contractually not allowed to talk to the press, but two members talked to the Guardian on condition of anonymity.
They said the last thing they wanted to do was harm ENO but that the threatened pay cuts would sacrifice quality.
“We would lose our best choristers,” said one. “This chorus has not been created, it has evolved over time. We know each other, we trust each other, we have a unique combination of voices … the ENO chorus is instantly recognisable.”
The other singer said it was “criminal” that no artistic director had been appointed since John Berry’s resignation. “The management have not got the artistic experience to inflict this … they don’t have the knowledge or love of the art form to understand. It is artistic vandalism.”
Before the press conference, ENO’s chief executive, Cressida Pollock, who first arrived as a McKinsey consultant, posted a blog outlining why the company was having to remodel its business to weather ACE’s cut.
“ENO is a solvent company and will remain that way,” she said. “To place the company at threat of another financial crisis would be to risk the future of one of the UK’s greatest cultural assets.”
She said reducing productions at the Coliseum was a temporary measure “and by 2020, we envisage producing 10 large-scale productions on the main stage at the Coliseum and a further six around London or outside, including a full repertoire”.
A Save English National Opera petition set up last week had more than 3,000 signatures by Monday afternoon. They included that of mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, who wrote: “You cannot rip the heart out of an already wounded company and expect it to somehow provide successful productions where everyone knows what to do.”
The tenor Stuart Skelton wrote: “If poor decisions over time have been made that have led to this, why is it that the only group in the company who are utterly blameless for the bad decisions are the only ones to be punished?”
The ballot will consider a number of forms of industrial actions, but a strike would not be unprecedented. In 2003, performances were halted after chorus members voted on strike action in similar circumstances.
Then, ENO got back on track after an emergency Arts Council rescue package – something no one expects this time.
ENO has now advertised for an artistic director, with a closing date of 17 February, and said it was “in the early stages of establishing a new artistic vision both at the Coliseum and in partnerships around London and the UK”.
Hadley said the union understood ENO needed to cut costs “and we are absolutely committed to working with them to achieve substantial savings but we are not prepared to cross the line of making some savings and destroying the integrity of the chorus”.